This study aimed to examine cost disparity and nutritional choices within theCity of Yarra (Yarra), targeting three suburbs that have low- and high-riseestates: Richmond, Fitzroy, and Collingwood. The healthy food basket(HFB) was modeled on the Queensland Healthy Food Access Basket for asix-person family for a fortnight and was constructed to include food itemsthat are common to ethnic groups living in Yarra. The HFB food item costswere sampled across 29 food outlets in Yarra. The average cost of HFB per fortnightfor a family of six was significantly lower in Richmond (Mean = $419.26)than in Collingwood (Mean = $519.28) and in Fitzroy (Mean = $433.98). Whilecosts for cereal groups, dairy, meats and alternatives, and non-core werecomparable across the suburbs, significant differences were noticed for fruit,legumes and vegetables. Geographic location alone explained 54% of thevariance in HFB price (F2,26 = 15.23, p < 0.001) and 32.7% in the variance offruit, vegetable and legumes (F2,26 = 7.72, p < 0.001). The effect of geographiclocation remained consistent after controlling for the type of foodoutlets. The type of food outlets had a non-significant effect on the varianceof prices. Richmond had a greater number variety of fruit, vegetables, andlegumes (F2, 26 = 5.7, p < 0.01) and an overall lower number of missing items(F2, 26 = 3.9, p < 0.05) than Collingwood and Fitzroy. The diversity of foodavailable in the three suburbs was more likely to reflect the Vietnamese,Chinese and East-Timorese shopping pattern than the rest of other ethnic

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